Sun Upon Dark Clouds

16: New Friend

“When will I ever get the chance to kiss someone in an alley?”

As the gangsters woke up early in the morning, they immediately left the motel that they stayed at to continue their search for the daughter of their leader. Frustration just had to fill in their heads as they almost caught her last night if only, they were not slow enough to be unable to catch up with the younger and faster woman. No matter how tired they still were, they had no choice but to go on with their mission otherwise they would be dead by their leader; he told them that they must not come back to Arrowbreak without the young woman. As mentioned, the gangsters were still exhausted from last night’s events when they had to pass by an alleyway where two women were making out, slapping to their faces about their relationship status.

“I swear I’ll get a girlfriend after this,” one of them said as they walked away from the couple.

“As if anyone would want to be your girlfriend,” the one with his shoulder bandaged from being stabbed teased and let out a loud laugh.

“Shut the f**k up and get moving!” The bald man, who was the most dangerous one among them, slapped the back of each of their heads.

With that said, they shut their mouths as they fastened their pace. All of them wanted to get the mission over already, after all.

***

“Ghrae?”

The familiar voice that spoke her name made Ghrae open her eyes and lightly push the woman in front of her back. Coley shot her eyes open in frustration since she was already drowning in their kiss though she was back to her senses when the both of them turned to the man standing awkwardly with a small plastic bag in his hand. That was when the brunette remembered why they were kissing in the first place as she cautiously looked around with hope that the gangsters were gone; a sigh of relief escaped her slightly swollen lips as she found no trace of them around them. Kissing the shorter woman was a good idea, after all.

“Noah? Why aren’t you in the shop?” Ghrae casually asked as she stood properly and fixed her hair with her fingers like she was not just making out with the other woman a second ago.

“I bought wasabi for my strawberry tart,” Noah smiled as he opened the plastic bag that he was holding and showed the wasabi paste tube inside of it.

“Oh.”

The brunet glanced at the brunette who was looking at the sky like it was the most interesting sight at the moment then back to the raven who was staring at him with a blank expression on her face. That was when he realized, were they actually making out? Ghrae is gay?

“Oh, were the both of you having a moment?” Noah asked with slightly wide eyes. In his point of view, the two women had their faces very close to each other because they were whispering secrets to each other like how typical female friends do. Well, as a man who had never been in a relationship, it seemed that he still had a lot to learn about women.

Yes, but you just had to be a d**k and interrupt us, Coley thought though she decided to not utter a word and let the latter answer instead. The kiss that they shared was nothing special anyway.

“Nope,” Ghrae answered as she turned to Coley who was raised an eyebrow at her. “Let’s get some coffee.”

And so, Noah returned to the coffee shop with the two women. A sign that said, “Temporarily closed. The owner either had to buy something or go somewhere for a while,” was on the glass doors of the shop. He then brought out his keys to unlock the shop. As Ghrae briefly noticed what the taller man looked like without an apron of his coffee shop, she realized that he was not the stylish type and that he was obviously only interested in running his coffee shop.

“I’ll have an iced latte,” Ghrae said as they stood in front of the counter while Noah went back behind the counter with his beige apron on that had the name of the coffee shop printed in dark brown on the front.

“I’ll have a double chocolate frappe with whipped cream,” Coley said.

“Got it,” Noah energetically responded as he tapped on the monitor. “That would be eleven dollars in total.”

“Aw, it’s not for free? I thought you guys were friends,” Coley teased.

“Business is business, new girl,” Noah gave her a friendly smile.

“It’s Coley.”

The raven pulled her wallet out and took cash out to pay as the brunette took a glance on her wallet, making her widen her eyes. The brunette saw how thick the bills in her wallet were that she started to overthink whether the raven was rich from working hard in a legal job or rich from doing illegal activities; she knew that Ghrae was linked to companies like what she said last night, but she could not help but doubt after seeing how much cash she had in her wallet. Coley swallowed a lump in her throat as she stared at the side of Ghrae’s face while she was paying.

Don’t tell me this angelic woman right here is doing much worse things than me for a living?!

Coley thought that it was ironic how she was escaping from her father because she did not want to associate with gangs and crimes anymore. Yet here she was, living a new life with an assumed criminal.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that?” Ghrae could not help but ask as they took a seat across each other at the table next to the window.

“Ghrae, be honest with me,” Coley started in a serious tone as she placed her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “What do you do for a living?”

“I used to work as the Chief Operating Officer of PYL Holdings,” Ghrae simply answered.

PYL Holdings? Is that a big company? Coley blinked multiple times. She never went to college and never went to New York since she only lived in a town. She was also not interested in those kinds of companies since she was only interested in photography if ever, she got the chance to have a stable and legal job. Coley then recalled that the latter got into an arranged marriage to have two companies merge together; that could probably explain why she was very wealthy.

“Did that make you rich?”

“Yeah. It’s the largest holding company in the country, you know,” The raven answered like it was the simplest thing in the world.

“Oh,” The brunette leaned back on her seat and stared at her with surprise. She felt stupid for assuming that she was doing illegal activities when working in the largest holding company in the country was enough to make a person rich.

It was finally time as Noah came with three drinks on a tray. He placed the tall cold drink with whipped cream topped with chocolate chips and chocolate syrup in front of Coley; a tall cold drink with the milk and espresso not fully stirred yet for Ghrae; and a cup of black coffee on the table next to the women for Noah himself. He then placed the tray on the table and took a seat at the table next to them.

“Are you a psychopath?” Coley raised an eyebrow as she watched the short-haired man took a sip on his hot black coffee and put on a pleased face like it was the most delicious drink that he had ever tasted.

“What? Black coffee is the best coffee,” Noah replied. “A mooncalf like you can never understand.”

The brunette scoffed and took a sip on her frappe as her mood changed. She decided to not argue back with the coffee shop owner after tasting how sweet her frappe was; it was just the way she liked it. The three of them sat in silence as they enjoyed their drinks in the empty coffee shop.

“By the way, why do I never see you around? Peace Town is literally a small town,” Noah started as he looked at the brunette.

“It hadn’t been a week since I got here. Also, I’m in this town to hide,” Coley let out a chuckle.

“Hide from whom?” the man asked curiously as he took a sip on his coffee full of bitterness.

“Eh, from some people. I did something to make them mad, so they’re now hunting for my head,” the brunette joked.

“That must be scary. You’re not a criminal, aren’t you?”

“Of course not,” Coley shook her head almost eagerly.

“Well, that’s good,” the older man nodded.

“Ghrae let me stay over her place, so I’m very grateful to her,” Coley smiled broadly with her small eyes disappearing at the woman across her.

The raven gave her a small smile in return.

“Oh, right!” Noah suddenly spoke, making the two women look at him with questioning eyes. “Can you two do me a favor?”

“It depends on what the favor is,” the brunette answered.

“It’s not hard or risky, don’t worry,” the short-haired man suddenly stood up and ran toward the room at the back.

The two women turned to look at each other with question marks on their faces as they just decided to wait for the owner to come back by enjoying their drinks. They did not want to admit it or not but they both agreed that the friendly man definitely had a talent in doing his job.

Less than a minute later and Noah came back from the door with a small purple box wrapped around with a silver ribbon. From the looks of it, it looked like a present for an event. He placed the box on the table of the two women as he slumped back down on his seat.

“I have a best friend named Margo Vaul. She owns a record shop called V Records,” Noah explained. “It’s her birthday today and I have to go somewhere after this. Give this present to her for me, please?”

“Where are you going?” Coley asked in curiosity as she took the box and checked it out.

“To make a surprise for Margo,” Noah simply replied and stood up from his seat after finishing his cup of coffee. “You two will do it, right?”

“Sure,” Ghrae answered.

“Thanks! I’ll lock up the shop when you two are done.”

Like what Noah said, the three of them left the coffee shop together after they were done with their drinks. The owner left with his motorcycle, making Coley feel envious as she missed her motorcycle; but as planned, they had to wait for a few days before she could take her motorcycle back.

“Noah said it’s Margo’s birthday, right?” Coley started after Noah disappeared from their sight.

“Yeah.” Ghrae looked at the taller woman when she suddenly turned to her with a suggestive smile on her face.

“Let’s get her a present then!”

“All right.”

With that, the both of them left to go buy a present for the birthday girl that they had never even met yet.